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Dear Amir,
Thank you for interesting and informative article.
Due to religious fanatic regime in Iran, expecting the Anti Religious feeling in Iran above 90%, among Iranian-Americans should be above 99% . It is difficult to know the exact number utill we establish Free Society and Secular Democracy in Iran.
Regards,
Cyrus

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Atheism and Religious Criticism Today

Atheism and religion have progressed around the world in different ways based on the political and economic climates of the different regions. In Western Europe atheism has become more widespread since World War II largely on its own merits, based on open scientific and educational advance. In Eastern Europe atheism has also spread since World War II due to both education and the suppression of religion by Communist regimes. Nevertheless, the Eastern European nations are still generally more religious than the Western European nations.

In Asia atheism is a complex issue because formal religions with a belief in a single supreme creator god never really existed. The primary Japanese religion was Shinto, which held that the emperor was a god, and this view has now been completely rejected in Japan, leaving Shinto a mostly ceremonial religion. Almost all Japanese are technically atheists, although many are religious in the sense that they still follow Shinto as cultural practice.

In China religion as Westerners know it never had a major following. Asian belief systems are more philosophical and also incorporate many mystical supernatural beliefs, which amount mostly to superstition, but there is little organized religious belief in “God” in Chinese history or in China today, yet many Chinese still consider themselves religious. This is generally the case with much of Asia, but in places such as the Philippines Christianity has become popular due to missionary work and colonialism.

In others areas of Asia, such as Indonesia, Islam has become very dominant and there is very little atheism among the people.

In India atheism is uncommon, although atheism has been tolerated in India for thousands of years and India is an extremely religiously diverse place with many conflicting religions.

In the Middle East atheism is rare and faces the strongest opposition. Most of the countries in the Middle East are formal theocracies or have very strong support of Islam by the State. Nevertheless, there are atheists in the Middle East. Atheism in the Middle East has been heavily associated with the Communist movement since World War II, and continues to be today. The war in Afghanistan during the 1980s was between atheistic Afghani Marxists and Islamic fundamentalists. The Soviet Union backed the Marxist Afghanis and the United States supported the Islamic Jihad of the fundamentalists, arguably leading to development of Al-Queda and the wave of Islamic terrorism that overtook the Middle East after the end of the Afghan civil war.

In Africa atheism is rare among the native populations. Some of the traditional religious beliefs persist in Africa, and there are many superstitious beliefs that persist even among Christian and Muslims. Christianity and Islam are becoming widely adopted there.

In South America atheism is not unheard of and is often associated with various socialist movements that have persisted in that region since World War II. The Majority of South America remains Catholic however. The president of Brazil from 1995 to 2000, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, was a publicly acknowledged atheist.

In The United States of America the rate of atheism is the lowest of any major industrialized country. The United States is the most religious country in the world outside of Third World countries. Atheism is even more prevalent in Israel than it is in America.

Attitudes towards atheism in the US have been heavily impacted by the Cold War. Since America and the Soviet Union were the two major superpower rivals after World War II, opposition to atheism became deeply rooted in American society and associated with patriotism in ways that did not take place anywhere else in the world.

Very few young atheists in America today understand the impact of the Cold War on religious attitudes in America.

While secular public education in America has been upheld since World War II, due to much effort by secular advocates, religious criticism has not been incorporated into public education. What we have in America today is a silence on the subject of religion. Education in America has avoided, and continues to avoid, taking any position on religion or criticism of religion. This has led to a very watered down teaching of history and science in attempts to reduce conflict with the wide variety of religious beliefs that exist in America. It is impossible to teach history and science without teaching the fallacies of religious beliefs however, and this is one of the elements that continues to undermine the education system of America.

Due to the unique anti-atheistic environment that has been present in America since the beginning of the Cold War, most atheists have remained in the closet and have had very little contact with other atheists and with atheistic ideas outside of their own personal ideas. Indeed many American atheists have been hostile to other atheists due to social conditioning. Many non-religious people in America today still do not like the term atheist and often speak in opposition to atheists, supporting religion as a social institution. Recent polls show that atheists are the most hated major group of people in America today.

Since no positive atheistic role models are discussed in public or made known through general education or public media in America, one of the biggest challenges that atheists and religious critics face in America today is coming into contact with other like minded people, identifying positive role models, and learning about atheistic worldviews.